Kering and the Festival de Cannes will present the 2017 Women in Motion Award to Isabelle Huppert

The Young Talents Award will be presented to Maysaloun Hamoud​

International film icon Isabelle Huppert will receive the third Women in Motion Award presented by Kering and the Festival de Cannes.

Isabelle Huppert has chosen director and scriptwriter Maysaloun Hamoud to receive the Young Talents Award.

François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering, Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival of Cannes, will present these awards during the official Women in Motion dinner on Sunday, 21 May 2017.

For the third Women in Motion programme, official partner Kering and the Festival de Cannes will present the Women in Motion Award to French actress Isabelle Huppert.

Exceptionally free-spirited and bold, Isabelle Huppert has taken many artistic risks in her career, and whilst acting with leading names, she has successfully established her own style in a variety of registers ranging from drama to comedy. She has pushed back boundaries with the strong and far-from-stereotypical roles that she has played since the early days of her career.

Whether being directed by legendary filmmakers or by a brilliant new generation of talented filmmakers, Isabelle Huppert is one of the most inspirational figures in the world of cinema.

Isabelle Huppert has in turn chosen to honour Maysaloun Hamoud by awarding her the Young Talents prize. In 2016 this young Palestinian director and scriptwriter made her first feature film, In Between (Bar Bahar), which chronicles the daily lives of three young Palestinian women living in Tel Aviv, torn between family traditions and their desire for independence. The film, which has won acclaim at festivals worldwide, was produced by Shlomi Elkabetz, whose sister, Ronit Elkabetz, the great scriptwriter, director and actress, died a year ago, leaving a lasting mark on Israeli cinema. The Young Talents Award, accompanied by funding of €50,000, will enable Maysaloun Hamoud to continue her filmmaking projects.

Isabelle Huppert and Maysaloun Hamoud thus join the ranks of notable film figures recognised by Women in Motion in previous years. In 2016, the Women in Motion Award went to American actresses Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, who played the leading roles in Thelma and Louise and who are particularly committed to defending women’s rights. They in turn chose to honour three young directors, Leyla Bouzid, Gaya Jiji and Ida Panahandeh. These five talented women follow in the footsteps of legendary actress Jane Fonda, and producer Megan Ellison.

“Isabelle Huppert is globally acclaimed as an actress for her eclectic choices and creative audacity. She is an actress with raw talent who succeeded in gaining recognition in an environment in which female representation is still a major challenge. By presenting her with this award, we wish to salute her considerable contribution to the world of cinema as well as her ability, through her roles and her career, to inspire new generations of women such as the director Maysaloun Hamoud, whose film is an ode to tolerance and diversity.”

François-Henri Pinault

“Things evolve slowly, and never enough. Since women continue to be confronted each day with countless obstacles, I am delighted and moved to be able to shine a spotlight on the talent of one of today’s most promising female directors, Maysaloun Hamoud, through the 2017 Women in Motion Young Talents Award. The free-spirited and joyful women that she portrays, torn between their desire for emancipation and the traditions that sometimes stifle them, are true heroines of our time.”

Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle HuppertA Cinema icon, Isabelle Huppert emerged, from the beginning of her acting career, as a leading name, working with some of the French film industry’s greatest directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Claude Sautet, Bertrand Blier, and André Téchiné. Under the direction of Claude Chabrol she played the role of Violette Nozière in the eponymous film which quickly earned her recognition at the Festival de Cannes. A globally-acclaimed French actress, her international career was launched with Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate. Isabelle Huppert then went on to work with directors from all over the world, including Austrian director - Michael Haneke, the South Korean director - Hong Sang-soo, American directors - Curtis Hanson et David Owen Russell, Italian directors - Marco Ferreri and Marco Bellocchio, and Dutch director - Paul Verhoeven. Isabelle Huppert continued to work with major French directors, both male and female, such as Jacques Doillon (A Woman’s Revenge), François Ozon (8 Women), Christophe Honoré (My Mother), Patrice Chéreau (Gabrielle), Mia Hansen-Løve (Things to Come), Claire Denis (White Material) and Catherine Breillat (Abuse of Weakness). She achieved a record by having played in over twenty films selected at the Cannes Film Festival, and has won twice the award for Best Actress (for Violette Nozière by Claude Chabrol and The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke). While already having won multiple awards around the world, Isabelle Huppert received an Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category for Elle by Paul Verhoeven. Her performance in this role also won her a second César award and a Golden Globe. After having been a member of the jury at the Festival de Cannes she was also once its President. With an already impressive filmography, this year she is competing at the Festival with two films in the Official Selection: Happy End by Michael Haneke and Claire’s Camera by Hong Sang-soo. Alongside her film career, Isabelle Huppert regularly performs in some of the world’s greatest theatres, acting in major plays such as Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (Peter Zadek), Orlando by Virginia Woolf (Bob Wilson), Medea by Euripides (Jacques Lassalle), Quartet by Heiner Müller (Bob Wilson), False Secrets by Marivaux (Luc Bondy) and Phaedra(s) (Krzysztof Warlikowski).

Maysaloun HamoudA Palestinian writer and director born in Budapest (Hungary) in 1982, Maysaloun Hamoud grew up with her family in Dir Hanne, a village in the north of Israel. After graduating with a master’s degree in history from the University of Jerusalem she decided to study filmmaking at the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv, graduating with distinction. In 2016 Maysaloun Hamoud directed her first feature film, In Between (Bar Bahar), produced by Shlomi Elkabetz and co-produced, in France, by Sandrine Brauer. This film, which recounts the lives of three young Palestinian women fighting against the family and religious constraints of Arab Israeli society in Tel Aviv, gained rapid attention, winning awards at a number of international festivals. Maysaloun Hamoud notably received the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival and no fewer than three awards at the 64th San Sebastian International Film Festival: the Sebastiane Award, the Another Look Award and the Youth Award.

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About Women in MotionWomen in Motion sets out to showcase the contribution of women to the film industry, whether in front of the camera or behind it. Launched in 2015 by Kering, in partnership with the Festival de Cannes, Women in Motion is an integral part of the Festival’s official programme. The initiative is based on two pillars: Talks open to journalists and industry professionals which give major figures the opportunity to compare and contrast their experiences and viewpoints around the question of women’s contribution to cinema, and to pool their recommendations for greater representation within the industry. Two Women in Motion Awards are presented each year, one to an inspiring figure who embodies the programme’s values, and another to a young film industry professional, who receives funding support for cinematographic projects.